That Others May Live
by USAF ParaJumper
Summary: Following the foot steps of his father, Victor Sanborn becomes a Pararescueman. With the war growing in Korea, he is sent out on a mission to assist some Marines from Force Recon to bring them back home even if he may not make it back.


Somalia – East Africa

16:20 Hours

October 3rd 1993

"Don't Go Looking For Combat,

Because You Will Always Find It." –SSgt Chavez USMC

"We have a Black Hawk down. I repeat, Black Hawk Down." The four Pararescuemen all heard over their radio set from inside of their UH-60 Black Hawk (Super 6-8).

"Shit man!" Technical Sergeant Sanborn exclaimed. "Think anyone is still alive?" He asked Senior Airman Mendez who was sitting on the other side of the aircraft.

"I saw it from my angle, but if we are going in we had better move. The Somalis will be all over them in a minute." He shouted back to him. Mendez was a mid-sized African-American in his mid twenties, he was staring at where the Black Hawk (Super 6-1) was a few seconds ago, tightening his grip on his M4 rifle.

The other two Pararescuemen that were in the UH-60 were Staff Sergeant Roy and Master Sergeant Wilkinson. They were both white men and were slightly taller than the average man, they also had short black hair underneath their kevlar helmets. the only visible difference between them was their age; Roy was in his late twenties while Wilkinson was in his mid thirties. Wilkinson was talking over his shoulder and shouting various things that couldn't be heard over the propellers of the aircraft, it was at these times that Sanborn wishes that they would talk over the radio.

When Wilkinson turned back to his men, they all staring at him, waiting for him to publish the order. "Were going in." He told them over the radio. "Headquarters contacted our pilot when the bird crashed, they said that Delta will need to secure a perimeter before we can land. Mendez and Roy." He said as he pointed to them in turn. "You both are going to meet up with Delta and help hold the line when we rope in while Sanborn and I are going to move the wounded."

"Yes sir!" they both said in unison.

"Sanborn!" Wilkinson snapped. "Be sure you have stretchers."

Sanborn gave conformation by slapping the back of his gear.

All of the Pararescuemen listened to their radios for about ten minutes while they waited on Delta to give the go ahead. "Were all ready!" They heard. "Send Pararescue!" Mendez was tapping his foot nervously as the aircraft spun around and headed for the crash site. As they neared the area, bullets were zooming past the cab of the helicopter, a few of them even hit the UH-60. "Thirty seconds." The Pilot said over the radio.

Sanborn felt as though the forward grip to his M4 would snap because of how hard he was squeezing it. The Black Hawk slowed to a steady hover as Roy and Mendez threw the propelling rope out of the aircraft. The number of rounds going past and hitting the Black Hawk was scaring Sanborn, 'I thought they secured this shit.' He screamed in his head.

"Go, go!" Master Sergeant Wilkinson screamed at his men. Roy and Mendez gripped the rope and jumped out of the aircraft one at a time and slid down it for fifty feet until they hit the dirt. Sanborn went to the side of the chopper and was about to jump until a large number of combatants started firing at them.

He ducked down and was almost crawling towards the rope when he heard the pilot over the radio. "6-2 this is 6-8 we've been hit." Sanborn jumped out of the aircraft and was sliding down when he looked back at the Black Hawk. There was a large amount of smoke that was coming out of the main rudders of the aircraft. When he touched the ground he ran for the crashed Black Hawk while dodging bullets that hit the ground all around him and went inside. "Super 6-8 coming out." The pilot said on the radio.

Wilkinson ran towards the UH-60 and jumped through the side and into the cab. Sanborn was examining the men and counted the two dead pilots and two severely wounded Delta snipers. Over the radio, one of the Deltas from outside was trying to ask Wilkinson about the crew. "Hey Willkie? What is the situation in there?"

"Both pilots are dead." He told the Delta.

The pilots both had various injuries from the crash; they had scrap metal sticking out of their chest and abdomen. The two that were wounded had similar wounds but they were not as severe. Sanborn was about to try to move one of them but realize that one of the pieces of metal that was sticking out of him was also pinning him to the side of the aircraft. Sanborn got back up and said over the radio, "2-5 we can't move these guys." He looked over to Wilkinson who was helping one of the wounded who was too weak to even react to his pain. "We'll kill them just by carrying them." He asked Wilkinson, "Stabilize in here?"

"Rodger." He said back to him.

"Stabilizing the bird, repeat stabilizing the area." The addressed to all the Deltas that were at the crash site over his headset.

"Understood we've got you covered." The Delta said.

"Sanborn I want you to go help Roy and Mendez." MSgt Wilkinson said.

"Rodger." Sanborn replied. He jumped out of the side of the UH-60 and took cover on its side. He spotted Roy, Mendez, and two other Deltas that were along the Northeast side of the crash and were encountering a lot of resistance from the Somalis. They took cover behind a brick wall that was three feet high and six feet long. Sanborn often wondered why the locals barely took cover on the streets, sometimes it seemed that they would literally just throw their lives away. Sanborn looked at the rooftop of one of the buildings and saw three enemies with AK-47s and one with a AK-74u and were about to fire at him. He shouldered his weapon and fired at them eight times so that they would be forced to take cover while he sprinted towards Roy and Mendez. A few more rounds went right past the side of him right before he reached his allies. Unable to slow himself down, he slammed himself into the side of the brick wall and took a few more shots at the enemy. "Roy, how is it over here?" he yelled to the Sergeant who had just killed an enemy with three shots."

Roy took cover and pulled out his magazine to swap it out with a fresh one. "They just keep coming down this alley!" he said as he chambered his rifle and took two more shots at the enemy, wounding another one. "There are women and children among them so watch what you shoot!"

The gunfire was intensifying with each passing second, the men would take turns with firing and reloading to keep the enemy at bay. "RPG!" one of the Deltas shouted. All of them fell to the ground and got as close to the wall as possible. They could hear the rocket explode around twenty feet away from them, getting a large amount of dirt and rocks to cover all of them. Once the rocket hit, all of them got up and fired at anything that moved, Mendez even killed a woman who was reaching for a gun. Sanborn was looking around for the one that had the RPG and saw him in a window reloading his weapon, he quickly took aim at him and squeezed the trigger five times. Three of the rounds hit the target, two in the chest and the other took out a visible chunk of his shoulder. The only thing that was left of him after he fell down was a fine mist of blood.

Twenty minutes later of constant gunfire, Wilkinson sent out an alert to all of the Deltas and Pararescuemen, "We have just received word from 6-2 that that Black Hawk 6-4 has been shot down. I need everyone from 6-8 and ten from 6-5 we are going to meet up with chalk 4 and move into the second crash site."

The three PJs all fired at the enemy and ran over to meet with Wilkinson and some other Deltas. Wilkinson started to jog down the street with his M4 shouldered and ready to kill. "Let's get the fuck out of here!" he called out.

They all moved in unison along the side of the building and killing any enemy that came close. At one point they had a truck with a LMG attachment and forced them to take it out first with a few well-placed grenades. They ran through street after street until they went into a construction site with large dirt walls for the foundation of new buildings. They were able to meet with Chalk 4, a group of about fifteen Army Rangers lead by Captain Steel right before they went into the area. All of them took cover behind two rusted cars that were ten feet away from each other and were being fired upon by around forty enemies in the buildings around them. One of the Enemies that were in the window even had a light machine gun and was really giving them hell. 6-4 was behind one car while 6-8 and 6-5 were behind the other. Wilkinson was waiting on the Captain to tell them what to do. "Captain Steel we need to move or else we are going to get pinned down." He told him over his radio.

The Captain reach for his radio and said in a pissed off tone, "We are moving as fast as we can. You let me do my job and I will let you do yours. Over."

Some of the Deltas looked over towards the large dirt wall and saw seven of the local militia. One of them opened fire at them and killed three while the others gave them suppression fire. Only two of the militia were able to five back, but they hit their target. One of the Deltas got shot in the stomach right above his magazines. "Fuck!" He screamed when he saw his own blood on his hands.

Another of the Deltas pulled him back and tried to stop the bleeding. "Medic!" He shouted to Wilkinson.

"Fuck." Wilkinson said under his breath. He reached for his radio and said, "Captain Steel, I'll take out the front window, rally point at the grey building, we'll cut thee troops Captain."

"Serge!" Captain Steel was trying to get him to stop.

" Alright let's move out!" Wilkinson call out to his men. They all got up and ran for the dirt wall, two of them helped with the wounded Delta to get them to safety. Sanborn, Roy, and Mendez stayed together and fired at any Somalis that had a weapon. When they got to the wall, Wilkinson ran up it and pulled out a grenade, "Cover me!" he shouted. Every one there fired everything they had at the building to make sure that Wilkinson was safe to throw the grenade. Once it left his hand, he dove back to his men and looked back at the window with just enough time to see it explode. " Let's go he said to them." He looked over his shoulder and saw that the Rangers were starting to move as well. They all ran to the building and went inside while Sanborn and Wilkinson stayed by the door to make sure that everyone made it inside. As soon as all of the Deltas were inside, an enemy truck drove up and started to fire at the rangers. Wilkinson immediately fired at them but not before one of them fired an RPG at the Rangers and another able to hit one of them in the shoulder. The rocket seemed to go in slow motion for the Master Sergeant as it flew to a group of two of the Rangers. It impacted with the wall that was right behind them and killed one of them and severely wounding the other. The other Rangers fired at and killed the people that were in the truck, got the two causalities, and ran inside.

"What the fuck are you doing out there?" Captain Steel yelled at Wilkinson.

"I'm doing my job! Now we need to move to that crash site. We have got to get out on that street and we've got to move!" He snapped back at the officer. "You need to keep up, sir."

"Don't you ever give me orders Sergeant." He said threateningly. "We are combat ineffective, you understand me? We have too many damn wounded to move."

"Then give me some of your shooters then we'll circle this to the bird."

The Captain looked around and pointed to three men, "I want you three to go with Sergeant Wilkinson and I want everyone else from my chalk to stay here and secure this position."

Wilkinson smiled slightly and said, "I need everyone from my chalk to come with me. Let's go!"

**I do hope that all of those reading this enjoyed this firt part of my story, the first few chapters will talk about the main character's father then jump around twenty years foward and continue from there. This chapter follows the movie Back Hawk Down for the most part with a few of my own details. If you have any questions, comments, or ideas, please leave a review or PM me. - USAF ParaJumper**


End file.
